www.theguardian.com

Mehri Talebi Darestani #fundie #sexist #quack theguardian.com

The Iranian state has said that it plans to open a treatment clinic for women who defy the mandatory hijab laws that require women to cover their heads in public

The opening of a “hijab removal treatment clinic” was announced by Mehri Talebi Darestani, the head of the Women and Family Department of the Tehran Headquarters for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. She said the clinic will offer “scientific and psychological treatment for hijab removal”

Iranian women and human rights groups have expressed outrage at the announcement

Sima Sabet, a UK-based Iranian journalist who was a target of an Iranian assassination attempt last year, said the move is “shameful”, adding that: “The idea of establishing clinics to ‘cure’ unveiled women is chilling, where people are separated from society simply for not conforming to the ruling ideology”

Tucker Carlson #fundie #crackpot theguardian.com

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration who was released from prison last week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

“Nuclear weapons are demonic, there’s no upside to them at all, and anyone who claims otherwise is either ignorant or doing the bidding of the forces that created nuclear technology in the first place, which were not human forces obviously,” Carlson said during a discussion on the perceived “spirituality” involved in the US development of atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August 1945, hastening the end of the second world war.

“Let me ask you this,” he continued. “What was the moment we can point to that nuclear technology was invented? I’ve never met a person who can isolate the moment where nuclear technology became known to man. German scientists in the 1930s? Really? Name the date? It’s very clear to me that these [nuclear weapons] are demonic.”

Tucker Carlson #crackpot #fundie #magick theguardian.com

Tucker Carlson, the former CNN and Fox News political chat host, has said he was “physically mauled” by a demon a year and a half ago, in an assault that he says left him bleeding and with scars from “claw marks”.

Carlson made the claim while speaking in an upcoming documentary, Christianities? In a preview clip on YouTube, Carlson is asked by John Heers of the non-profit First Things Foundation if he believed that “the presence of evil is kickstarting people to wonder about the good”.

“That’s what happened to me. I had a direct experience with it,” said Carlson.
Asked if he was referring to journalism, Carlson responded: “No, in my bed at night. I got attacked while I was asleep with my wife and four dogs and mauled, physically mauled.”

Carlson, who said he still bears the scars, said his assailant was a “demon”. He added: “Or by something unseen that left claw marks on my sides.”

He said at the time of the attack, he was asleep in bed. I was “totally confused, I woke up, and I couldn’t breathe, and I thought I was going to suffocate”, he said.

“I walked around outside and then I walked in and my wife and dogs had not woken up. And they’re very light sleepers. And then I had these terrible pains on my rib cage and on my shoulder, and I was just in my boxer shorts and I went and flipped on the light in the bathroom, and I had four claw marks on either side underneath my arms and on my left shoulder. And they’re bleeding.”

He added that he explained the encounter to an assistant, an evangelical Christian, who told him: “That happens, people are attacked in their bed by demons.”

Donald Trump #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

In what was seen as an extreme display of demagoguery even by his standards, Trump drew cheers from an audience in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a picture of an out-of-control crime spree that he said could be ended “immediately” with one “real rough, nasty day”, or “one rough hour”

“You see these guys walking out with air conditioners with refrigerators on their back, the craziest thing,” Trump said. “And the police aren’t allowed to do their job. They’re told, if you do anything, you’re gonna lose your pension

“They’re not allowed to do it because the liberal left won’t let them do it. The liberal left wants to destroy them, and they want to destroy our country”

In a passage that provoked a storm on social media, the former president and Republican nominee then said: “If you had one day, like one real rough, nasty day with the drug stores as an example, where, when they start walking out with …”

He then trailed off in a digression to falsely accuse Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, of introducing a practice in California when she was attorney general that exonerated thieves from prosecution of items worth less than $950

Politico said the remark appeared to be a reference to proposition 47[…]
Trump continued: “You saw kids walk in with calculators. They didn’t want to go over the $950. They’re standing with calculators adding it up. You know, these are smart, smart people. They’re not so stupid, but they have to be taught

“Now, if you had one really violent day … one rough hour, and I mean real rough. The word will get out and it will end immediately”

The comments triggered a stream of comparisons to The Purge, a 2013 film that depicts the election of a radical new party called The New Founding Fathers of America following an economic collapse, which then enacts drastic policies to end crime and unemployment

Marjorie Taylor Greene #wingnut #dunning-kruger #pratt theguardian.com

[Article Title: "Marjorie Taylor Greene compares Trump to Jesus at Las Vegas rally"]

[...]
“The Democrats and the fake news media want to constantly talk about ‘President Trump is a convicted felon’,” she told a crowd that waited in soaring early-summer temperatures. “Well, you want to know something? The man that I worship is also a convicted felon. And he was murdered on a Roman cross.”
[...]
It is not the first time Greene has drawn parallels between Trump and Christ – whom Christians consider to be the messiah and son of God – as well as other historical martyr figures.
[...]
“Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government,” she told the Right Side Broadcast Network.

“There have been many people throughout history that have been arrested and persecuted by radical, corrupt governments … I just can’t believe it’s happening, but I’ll always support him. He’s done nothing wrong.”
[...]

Donald Trump #racist #conspiracy #wingnut theguardian.com

[Title: Trump repeats lies and attacks Kamala Harris’s racial identity at panel of Black journalists. (31 Jul 2024)]

[...]
Donald Trump parroted disinformation about immigration and abortion, questioned Kamala Harris’s race and accused a panel moderator, Rachel Scott – the senior congressional correspondent for ABC News – of being “rude” and presenting a “nasty question” when she asked him: “Why should Black voters trust you?”
[...]
Trump arrived more than an hour late to the panel[...]
The conversation opened with Scott asking why Black voters should trust Trump given his repeated inflammatory comments about Black people.

“Well, first of all, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked a question in such a horrible manner,” Trump said, before asking whether Scott was with “fake news network” ABC News.
[...]
Trump added: “I think it’s disgraceful that I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country … I think it’s a very rude introduction.”

He continued, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,”
[...]
He repeated the unsubstantiated claim that undocumented immigrants were planning on taking “Black jobs”,[...]“Anybody that has a job – that’s what it is. They’re taking the employment away from Black people.”
[...]
Trump claimed that Harris suddenly “became a Black woman” and had previously only been identifying with her Indian heritage. “Is she Indian or is she Black?”[...]“I respect either one but she obviously doesn’t because she was Indian all the way and then all of sudden she became a Black woman.”
[...]
At least two Black attendees sporting Trump hats frequently cheered for the former president, especially as he reiterated that he faced “political persecution” after being convicted of 34 felonies.
[...]

Narconon UK #fundie #quack theguardian.com

Narconon UK was ordered by the watchdog to address a “range of shortfalls” after an investigation identified breaches of charity law and issues with management

The charity, which runs a private rehab facility in rural East Sussex, must also be more transparent about its treatment approach and links to the Church of Scientology, the Charity Commission said

The regulatory action comes after a nine-month investigation by the Observer revealed how people seeking help for drug and alcohol issues at Narconon’s Heathfield facility were subjected to psychological drills akin to those used in Scientology’s “auditing” process. Some people would suffer extreme reactions – breakdowns, paranoia or going into “trance-like states” – according to ex-patients and staff, who were also expected to complete the programme. Independent experts said the drills were reminiscent of a military boot camp or “obedience training” and did not appear to be therapeutic

The Observer investigation uncovered evidence of the charity downplaying its links to Scientology[…]
Sheila Maclean, Narconon’s UK manager, said the issues the Charity Commission flagged had been “successfully resolved”, adding: “We appreciate and welcome their guidance and look forward to our continued relationship with the commission in the future”

She said Narconon was “proud of its record of transparency as to the source of its programme and the success of its methods” and that, while it was developed by Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, “it does not require any religious belief and a person does not become a Scientologist by doing the programme”[…]
The exercises closely resemble ‘training routines’ used in ‘auditing’[…]
Prof Tim Millar, professor of substance use and addictions at Manchester University, said he was astonished by the allegations. During 30 years researching drug treatment in England he said he had never seen such techniques

Hongchi Xiao #quack #conspiracy theguardian.com

An alternative healer who promoted a “slapping therapy” taken up by millions of people across the world has been found guilty of the gross negligence manslaughter of a British woman who died at one of his workshops

Danielle Carr-Gomm, 71, who had type 1 diabetes, fell fatally ill in 2016 after she stopped taking her insulin and fasted during a paida lajin therapy retreat run by Hongchi Xiao at a country house in Wiltshire

The prosecution claimed Xiao, 61, who is addressed as “master” by his followers, was in charge of the workshop and had a duty of care towards Carr-Gomm

They said he was grossly negligent by failing to take reasonable steps to encourage her to take insulin and to summon medical help when it was clearly required. When she became seriously ill, crying in pain and weakening, Xiao blamed her decline on a “healing crisis”[…]
The prosecution said Xiao should have been fully aware of the danger Carr-Gomm was in because the year before a six-year-old boy with type 1 diabetes had died at a workshop he ran in Australia after Xiao had told his mother to stop giving him insulin. Xiao was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter over the boy’s death in 2019 and jailed[…]
Xiao, who was born in China, said he had quit a lucrative career in finance to focus on paida lajin and was not in it to make money. He said the technique, which involves slapping and stretching, was easy to learn, helped tackle every disease known to humans, and reduced the need for patients to take “western” medicine with “poisonous” side-effects[…]
Xiao said the deaths of the boy in Australia and Carr-Gomm had led to paida lajin being “demonised” and he suggested it had deliberately been discredited by “western doctors” and alternative practitioners because it put them out of work

Hibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #god-complex #sexist theguardian.com

Taliban edict to resume stoning women to death met with horror

The Taliban’s announcement that it is resuming publicly stoning women to death has been enabled by the international community’s silence, human rights groups have said.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced at the weekend that the group would begin enforcing its interpretation of sharia law in Afghanistan, including reintroducing the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery.

In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan last Saturday, Akhundzada said: “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery].

“You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”

He justified the move as a continuation of the Taliban’s struggle against western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun,” he said.

In the past year alone, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions, according to Afghan Witness, a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan. Of these, 57 were women.

Most recently, in February, the Taliban executed people in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The militant group has urged people to attend executions and punishments as a “lesson” but banned filming or photography.

Jason Struhs #fundie theguardian.com

Elizabeth Struhs’ father, Jason, told a coronial counsellor he “wouldn’t bury a bag of bones” and said he didn’t believe in funerals, after his eight-year-old daughter died, a Queensland court heard on Monday

Later, the father of one of the members of the Toowoomba religious group now on trial for the death of Elizabeth told the court he had warned his son he’d joined a “cult”

All 14 adult members of the religious sect, known as the “Saints”, are now on trial for the death of Elizabeth. The type 1 diabetic died on 7 January 2022, allegedly of diabetic ketoacidosis due to being denied insulin

Coronial counsellor Julie Baker called Jason and Zachary Struhs that month to tell them her body could be released to the family for a funeral and burial, she told the Brisbane supreme court

“He said to me he didn’t believe in funerals, Elizabeth was with God, and that he would not be burying a bag of bones,” she said. She then informed him the body would be dealt with by a government-appointed funeral director

Coronial prosecutor Caroline Marco also called three family members of defendants on Monday to testify about how defendants came to join the sect

Schoenfisch took every opportunity he could to warn his son about the group, which he called a “cult”. He recalled a specific meeting in 2021, where he said he told his son “this is going to end badly” and “you can always come home to our family”

Kristi Noem #psycho theguardian.com

Conservative pundits have condemned the South Dakota governor and possible Trump running mate Kristi Noem, amid widespread horror over her admission in a new book that she killed both an “untrainable” dog and an unruly goat during a single day in hunting season.

[...]

“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, saying Cricket was “untrainable … dangerous” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.

“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.”

Noem describes taking Cricket to a gravel pit on her farm and shooting her. Remarkably, Noem then describes how she also chose to kill an unruly, unnamed, un-castrated goat, first botching the job then finishing the animal off with a third shotgun shell.

Eli Regalado #fundie #mammon theguardian.com

‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, to Christians based in their home town of Denver, Colorado, allegedly telling would-be investors that the Lord had told him people would become rich if they invested, the state’s division of securities announced in a press release on Thursday.

But INDXcoin was “practically worthless” in reality, prosecutors said in the statement. Investors lost millions of dollars while the Regalados used their investments for lavish living.

In a video statement about the charges, Eli admitted that the couple had squandered $1.3m that was raised through cryptocurrency.

“The charges are that me and Kaitlyn pocketed $1.3m,” Regalado said in the video published to INDXcoin’s website on Friday. “I just wanted to come out and say those charges are true.”

Regalado added: “A few hundred thousand dollars went to a home remodel the Lord told us to do.”

Elgeyo Marakwet mob #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death

“Angry youth raided the police post in a bid to get the girls, who had been rescued by police after they were genitally mutilated, where they overpowered the officer who was on duty and stoned him to death before burning his body using a mattress,” reported the government-owned Kenya news agency

The six girls are recuperating at a local hospital, according to county police commander, Peter Mulinge[…]
Mwebia, whose organisation has since trained nearly 500 male champions in counties where FGM exists, says men cringe when they are shown videos of the cut, a rite they traditionally believe is undertaken for their benefit

“They are told the cut makes women more mature and avoid promiscuity. They are also told that they will lose any respect within the community by marrying an uncut woman. That is why they will kill anyone, including a policeman, who interferes with the cut,” Mwebia said

Mwebia was attacked by another group of men in Kuria in December 2016 after he and a colleague were suspected of filming a street parade of girls undergoing the cut

Nigel Farage, MP (Reform-Clacton) #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

Nigel Farage has said he is part of a “similar phenomenon” to the misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, as he claimed that there were forces in society trying to “stop young men from being young men”

The Reform UK leader used the last day of campaigning before the general election to appear alongside Derek Chisora, the controversial boxer and Reform UK supporter, in a boxing gym in Clacton, where Farage is making his eighth bid to be elected as an MP

Farage used the visit to speak about what he described as the feelings of “emasculation” among young men, saying: “Look at the football. You know, they’re told: Go to Germany. Please don’t drink more than two pints of beer. You what? Don’t chant at the football matches. You what? Oh, and don’t tell jokes that might offend the Germans. I mean, come on. We are trying to stop young men being young men

“That’s why Tate got the following he got. So maybe I’m part of a similar phenomenon,” he said[…]
Farage defended his appearance alongside Chisora, who was given a 12-week suspended prison sentence in 2010 after being found guilty of assaulting his then girlfriend

Asked if Chisora was a good role model, he replied: “You show me someone who has lived a perfect life and never been in trouble. For these young kids he’s a fantastic role model. He’s got a huge following in the country. And yeah, he is a good role model. Imperfect as we all are”

Iran court #fundie #sexist #conspiracy theguardian.com

[Title: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging]

The Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has been sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine and the confiscation of property, his lawyer has confirmed.
[...]
He continued by saying the chief reasons given for the punishment were Rasoulof’s public statements, as well as his continued involvement in making films and documentaries which the court described as “examples of collusion with the intention of committing a crime against the country’s security”.
[...]
Producers on the film reported harassment by the state police, Paknia has previously reported on X, and actors were summoned for questioning and banned from leaving the country.

Paknia confirmed the latest developments in an email, adding: “He is accused of making [The Seed of the Sacred Fig] without obtaining a license from the related authorities, alongside accusations that the actresses were not applying hijab properly and were filmed without hijab. All key members of the film are banned from leaving the country and have been investigated by the security forces of the Ministry of Intelligence.”
[...]

[Note: more mentions of state-persecuted artists follow in the article.]

Iraqi parliament and MP Raed al-Maliki #homophobia #transphobia theguardian.com

Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill making same-sex relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison[…]
Transgender people will also be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 out of 329 lawmakers on Saturday

A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people to between 10 and 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by AFP, in a country where gay and transgender people already face frequent attacks and discrimination

They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting” same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who “intentionally” act like women

The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes trans people and doctors who perform gender reassignment surgery with up to three years in prison[…]
The amendments also ban organisations that “promote” homosexuality and punish “wife swapping” with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years

Lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP that “the law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts”

He said passing the new amendment had been postponed until after the visit of the Iraqi prime minister, Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, to the US[…]
The US and the EU oppose the law and “we didn’t want to impact the visit,” he said

“It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs”[…]
Human Rights Watch’s Iraq researcher Sarah Sanbar said the new law change “is a horrific development and an attack on human rights”

“Rather than focusing on enacting laws that would benefit Iraqis – like passing the draft domestic violence law or draft child protection law – Iraq is choosing to codify discrimination against LGBT people”

Martin Sellner, Gerrit Huy, Roland Hartwig and unnamed Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) and Identitarian Movement members #racist #wingnut theguardian.com

Politicians from[…]AfD[…]met the head of the[…]Identitarian Movement and neo-Nazi activists[…]
It is likely to feed a fraught debate over whether the AfD should be banned[…]
The meeting was attended not only by two state and municipal-level AfD politicians but also one active member of the Bundestag, Gerrit Huy, as well as Roland Hartwig, a former MP who has acted as a personal aide to Weidel since September 2022. One party branch of the AfD’s has described Hartwig as being tasked with the party’s “strategic positioning”

The AfD figures were meeting with Martin Sellner, who was tasked with introducing the “masterplan” and is a key figure in the pan-European “New Right”[…]
The Identitarian Movement is on a list of organisations whose membership the AfD considers incompatible with party membership[…]
One key idea that Sellner has been trying to nudge into the political mainstream is “re-migration”[…]Target not only asylum seekers but, as Sellner elaborated[…]also citizens holding German passports who, he claims, “form aggressive, rapidly growing parallel societies”[…]
The explosive subject of “re-migration” apparently dominated the discussions[…]Sellner allegedly presenting the forcible extradition of “non-assimilated” German citizens as the biggest “challenge” if the AfD were to gain power

Ideas discussed at the meeting[…]included that of deportations to an unnamed state in northern Africa that would provide space for up to 2 million people. People who lobby on behalf of refugees in Germany could also go there, Sellner is reported to have suggested[…]
During the meeting, Sellner said, he had made it “unmistakably clear that no distinction can be made between different types of [German] citizens[…]all re-migration measures have to be legal”[…]
Huy[…]is reported to have claimed that she developed her own “re-migration” concept, and appeared to suggest her party no longer opposed the government’s plan to lift a ban on dual citizenship for that reason

Frank Hester #racist #sexist #psycho theguardian.com

West Yorkshire police are investigating “racist comments which were allegedly made at a meeting” by the Conservative [biggest ever] donor Frank Hester in 2019.

The investigation was triggered after the Guardian reported that Hester, a businessman based in Leeds, told colleagues that looking at Diane Abbott made you “want to hate all black women” and said the MP “should be shot”.

Hester, who has given £10m to the Tories in the past year, said in the meeting that he did not hate all black women. But he did say that seeing Abbott, who is Britain’s longest-serving black MP, on TV meant “you just want to hate all black women because she’s there”.

After the publication of the remarks, a statement from TPP said Hester “accepts that he was rude about Diane Abbott in a private meeting several years ago but his criticism had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The statement said Hester abhorred racism, “not least because he experienced it as the child of Irish immigrants in the 1970s”.

Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa, aka Peixão ("Big Fish") #fundie theguardian.com

Reports that a powerful Rio drug lord known for his extremist religious beliefs ordered Catholic churches near his stronghold to close have spooked worshipers and security experts and exposed the advent of a “narco-pentecostal”[…]
Claims emerged in the Brazilian press over the weekend that Álvaro Malaquias Santa Rosa – a notorious gang boss known as Peixão (Big Fish) – had determined that three places of worship should shut down in and around the agglomeration of favelas that he controls[…]
Since Peixão – whose nickname comes from the ichthys “Jesus” fish – took power in 2016 of five favelas that have become known as the Complexo de Israel, an allusion to the evangelical belief that the return of Jews to the Holy Land is a step towards the second coming of Christ and Armageddon[…]
In the past, Peixão’s troops have been accused of ransacking Afro-Brazilian temples and banning Afro-Brazilian celebrations in the Complex of Israel, where more than 100,000 people live. But this week’s reports were the first relating to Catholic places of worship

The first inkling that something was amiss came on Saturday when staff at the Our Lady of Conception and Saint Justin Martyr parish told parishioners that meetings and mass were suspended “until further notice”. The social media post was later deleted but, according to local newspapers, word quickly spread among churchgoers that the order had come from Peixão

The broadsheet O Globo said there were subsequent reports that armed men on motorbikes had visited two other local churches, Saint Hedwig and Saint Cecilia, and decreed that weddings or christenings should not take place. Those churches also published messages announcing their temporary closure

The Archdiocese of Rio denied the media reports, insisting their churches were operating as normal[…]
But the civil police’s anti-intolerance and racism unit is reportedly investigating. On Monday morning, military police launched an operation to remove barricades

Operation Dudula, Philani Gumede and Isaac Lesole #racist theguardian.com

An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections

Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported

The party, which first emerged in Johannesburg’s Soweto township after riots in 2021, claims to have widespread support, with a formal presence in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. It claims to be planning to stand candidates in 1,500 of the country’s 4,468 voting districts

Many Operation Dudula followers have faced allegations of hate speech and physical violence. They have staged protests outside embassies, turned people away outside hospitals to prevent foreign nationals from accessing state medical services, and conducted door-to-door searches of businesses in poorer areas demanding to see identity documents

In August, Philani Gumede, a 36-year-old from Durban, was convicted of hate speech after sending a voice-note to members calling on them to evict foreigners from businesses[…]
In 2022, Operation Dudula followers camped outside Kalafong hospital in Atteridgeville, a suburb of South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, preventing people, including pregnant women, from entering the hospital

“People were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, a health promotion supervisor for Médecins Sans Frontières. “They have even demanded that critically ill patients who are migrants must be ‘unplugged’ and taken out”[…]
The Operation Dudula party’s spokesperson, Isaac Lesole, said the transition from civil movement to political party would mean a tempering of tactics

“We want to demilitarise Operation Dudula. We know the military angle did not appeal to a lot of people”[…]
But its core ideology would not change, he said. “We view illegal immigrants as criminals, and they must go back to their countries”

Elon Musk #conspiracy #racist theguardian.com

Elon Musk has accused George Soros’s foundation of wanting to destroy western civilisation, as the tech tycoon prepares to meet the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in California

Musk made the comment in reply to a post by a user sharing footage of people arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa from north Africa that referred to a “George Soros led invasion” of Europe

“The Soros organization appears to want nothing less than the destruction of western civilization,” X’s owner posted[…]
Civil rights groups, including the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the ADL, have issued findings that the volume of hate speech on X has grown under the stewardship of Musk

Yoweri Museveni & George Peter Kaluma #homophobia #pratt #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan president calls on Africa to ‘save the world from homosexuality’

Museveni says homosexuality is ‘danger to procreation of human race’ at Entebbe conference hosted by US anti-LGBTQ+ hate group

The Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, has called on African leaders to reject “the promotion of homosexuality”, suggesting he will sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which was passed by parliament last month.

The bill, which imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and life imprisonment for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, has been widely criticised internationally, with the UN high commissioner for human rights urging the president not to sign it.

Speaking on Sunday, Museveni said homosexuality was “a big threat and danger to the procreation of human race [sic]”.

He said: “Africa should provide the lead to save the world from this degeneration and decadence, which is really very dangerous for humanity. If people of opposite sex [sic] stop appreciating one another then how will the human race be propagated?”

His comments followed a two-day inter-parliamentary conference held at State House in Entebbe on “family values and sovereignty”, attended by MPs and delegates from 22 African countries, including Zambia, Kenya and Sierra Leone.

Museveni praised Ugandan MPs for passing the anti-gay bill and vowed “never to allow the promotion and publicisation of homosexuality in Uganda, stressing that it will never be tolerated”.

A Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist, who asked to remain anonymous for their own safety, attended the conference via Zoom under a pseudonym. “They are drawing up an African strategy to fight homosexuality. They want their government heads to commit to what they called ‘the African position’,” the activist said.

The Uganda government tweeted quotes from a Kenyan MP, George Peter Kaluma, stating that “a person proposing that there should be same-sex marriages or same-sex relationships is a person seeking to wipe out the entire humanity out of the face of this earth [sic]”.

The government also tweeted that Kaluma, who attended the conference, had said many African states were drafting laws similar to the one in Uganda, including Kenya, Ghana and Malawi.

Travis Ikeguchi #homophobia #psycho theguardian.com

A 27-year-old man who fatally shot a store owner in California had torn down her Pride flag and shouted homophobic slurs, officials said on Monday.

Laura Ann Carleton, 66, who went by “Lauri”, died at the scene of the shooting on Friday outside her Mag.Pi clothing store in Cedar Glen, an unincorporated community in the mountains roughly 60 miles (100km) east of Los Angeles.

San Bernardino’s county sheriff, Shannon Dicus, identified the shooter as Travis Ikeguchi in a Monday press conference. Ikeguchi fled on foot, and when he was confronted by officers, he opened fire on them and hit multiple squad cars, Dicus said. Sheriff’s deputies fired back and fatally shot Ikeguchi a mile from the store.

Ikeguchi, who lived in Cedar Glen, had a history of posting hateful content online, the sheriff said, adding that his family had reported him missing the day prior. He shot Carleton with a semiautomatic handgun, which was not registered to him, and he did not have a concealed carry license, according to Dicus.

Yoweri Museveni, Robina Rwakoojo, John Musila and others #homophobia #pratt #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan MPs pass bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality

MPs in Uganda have passed a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which would make homosexual acts punishable by death, attracting strong condemnation from rights campaigners.

All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the hardline anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”.

“A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” reads the bill presented by Robina Rwakoojo, the chairperson for legal and parliamentary affairs.

Just two MPs from the ruling party, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo and Paul Kwizera Bucyana, opposed the new legislation.

“The bill is ill-conceived, it contains provisions that are unconstitutional, reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence and criminalises individuals instead of conduct that contravenes all known legal norms,” said Odoi-Oywelowo.

One MP in the chamber, John Musila, wore a gown reading: “Say No To Homosexual, Lesbianism, Gay.”

image

An earlier version of the bill prompted widespread international criticism and was later nullified by Uganda’s constitutional court on procedural grounds. The bill will now go to President Yoweri Museveni, who can veto or sign it into law. In a recent speech he appeared to express support for the bill.

President Museveni last month said Uganda will not embrace homosexuality, claiming that the west was seeking to compel other countries to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.

“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” said Museveni in a televised address to parliament on 16 March.

“Homosexuals are deviations from the normal. Why? Is it by nature or by nurture? We need to answer those questions. We need a medical opinion on that,” he said.

Florida State Board of Education #dunning-kruger #racist theguardian.com

Kamala Harris went to Florida on Friday to address the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history, which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved[…]
On Wednesday, the Florida board of education approved new standards for how public schools should teach Black history.

According to a 216-page document, public school students will now be taught that some Black people received “personal benefit” from slavery – because it taught them useful skills

“Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” one curriculum benchmark said

The new curriculum also says Black people perpetrated violence during some race massacres, including the 1906 Atlanta race riot and the 1921 Tulsa massacre

On Thursday, at a conference for the Black sorority Delta Sigma Theta, Harris condemned the updated education standards as “revisionist history”[…]
The Florida Education Association, a union representing more than 150,000 educators, called the new curriculum a “disservice to Florida students” and a “big step backwards”

Unnamed Queensland Police Service officers in Brisbane #wingnut #racist #psycho theguardian.com

Audio recordings taken at the Brisbane city police watch house reveal officers joking about beating and burying black people, referring to Nigerians as “jigaboos”, and raising fears that Australia “will be fucking taken over”

A series of tapes, leaked to Guardian Australia by a whistleblower, record several Queensland police service officers using racist slurs and offensive language while working in the holding cells

The audio – which we have published below – features comments by several watch house officers (a non-policing role) and sworn police. It includes jokes about one officer’s desire to “skull drag” protesters, discussions of fears of “outbreeding” by Muslim immigrants, and, when speaking about African population growth, the comment “let’s just hope Ebola works”

The recordings were submitted to the state’s commission of inquiry into police responses to domestic and family violence by watch house officer Steven Marshall[…]
He says some conversations were about people of colour held at the watch house, including one black detainee being referred to as “a gorilla in the mist” and jokes made about a fellow officer that a female Indigenous detainee “won’t give you a fucking blowjob here”[…]
He says that he only complained internally about one of these recordings because he had previously complained about unrelated matters and had “exhausted all options over many years” to hold colleagues to account in relation to these, including lodging internal whistleblower complaints

Yoweri Museveni, Anita Annet Among & Martin Ssempa #fundie #homophobia #psycho #wingnut theguardian.com

Ugandan president signs anti-LGBTQ+ law with death penalty for same-sex acts

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.

The move immediately drew condemnation from many Ugandans as well as widespread international outrage.

Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

Among tweeted on Monday morning: “The president … has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. As the parliament of Uganda, we have answered the cries of our people. We have legislated to protect the sanctity of [the] family.

“We have stood strong to defend our culture and [the] aspirations of our people,” she said, thanking Museveni for his “steadfast action in the interest of Uganda”.

Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of the bill, presented it as a victory against the US and Europe and suggested Uganda needed to push back against groups working to tackle HIV. He said: “The president has shown great courage to defy bullying of the Americans and Europeans. That bullying we shall not give you money. They intimidate and threaten you.”

In a joint statement, the heads of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNAids and the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) reacted with “deep concern” and said progress on tackling Aids and HIV was “now in grave jeopardy”.

Museveni claimed in March that his government was attempting to resist western efforts to “normalise” what he called “deviations”.

“The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people,” he said.

Heinrich XIII Prince Reuß von Greiz, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, Rüdiger von Pescatore and other conspirators #wingnut #conspiracy theguardian.com

An alleged far-right plot led by a German aristocrat to overthrow the state that sought the backing of the Russian government has been thwarted in Germany, after a series of dawn raids across the country[…]
Relatives of the group’s alleged ringleader, Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuß von Greiz[…]told the Ostthüringer Zeitung newspaper in August he was a “bitter old man” with “crazy conspiracy theory views” who had turned his back on the family years ago[…]
Peter Frank, Germany’s public prosecutor general,[…]Confirmed reports that an armed wing of the group, which was meant to form the basis of a new German army and included former active members of the military, had planned to violently storm the German Bundestag or parliament

“Those who have been arrested are supporters of conspiracy myths, from a conglomerate of narratives relating to the ideologies of the Reichsbürger and QAnon ideologies”[…]
The group[…]had been preparing for so-called “Day X”, on which about two dozen people were to storm the Reichstag building[…]
After their takeover, the group had envisioned renegotiating the treaties Germany signed after the end of the second world war. “For now, the Russian Federation was exclusively to be the central contact for these negotiations,” prosecutors said[…]
Among those arrested was a former senior field officer at the German army’s paratrooper battalion, identified as 69-year-old Rüdiger von Pescatore and believed to have been a commander in Calw. He was also described as a ring leader of the group[…]
They had even started to nominate ministers for a transitional post-coup government, according to the newspaper Die Zeit, in which one of the suspects, the former AfD MP Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, 58, a judge by profession, who was arrested at her home in the western Berlin district of Wannsee on Wednesday morning, was to be federal minister for justice

Steve Christou #homophobia theguardian.com

The ban on same-sex parenting books at libraries in a western Sydney council area could be rescinded after widespread backlash and a warning from the premier, Chris Minns, that LGBTQ+ people were being used as a “political football”.

Four Labor councillors on Cumberland city council have lodged a rescission motion to overturn the ban, which they expect will be debated at the next council meeting on 15 May. The vote is expected to be tight.

The 23-page book explores the experience of having two mothers or two fathers in a way that is designed to be understood by young children. Its contents include quotes such as “having same-sex parents is no different to having opposite-sex parents”.

The book notes that “people might make assumptions” and “people might be unkind” and contains advice such as: “All loving families are good. Remember, as long as you are happy, it doesn’t matter what other people think.”

“Treating someone unfairly because of who they love is a type of discrimination and it is never OK,” the book says.

Christou this week publicly confirmed he had not read the book.

Once a Labor party member, Christou defected to Our Local Community in 2019. He ran as an independent for the federal seat of Parramatta at the 2022 election, garnering 2,982 votes.

In 2021, while he was the Cumberland mayor, Christou used his casting vote to defeat a motion that would have installed street signs in the area that said “Racism Not Welcome”.

Christou is known for his outspoken views and has previously advocated passionately for the right to free speech.

On 28 April, just four days before he put forward the amendment to enact the book ban, Christou posted a video on his X account railing against Australia’s eSafety commissioner as a form of “censorship” and an “attack on people’s free speech”.

“Freedom of speech is very important, but this country is being run down the toilet by this government and their communist regime. It’s not on,” he said.

The Government of India #wingnut theguardian.com

Indian government accused of rewriting history after edits to schoolbooks

References to Muslim rulers, deadly riots connected to PM and Gandhi’s dislike of Hindu nationalism removed

The Indian government has been accused of rewriting history to fit its Hindu nationalist agenda after school textbooks were edited to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu nationalism, as well as mention of a controversial religious riot in which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated.

Textbooks were also revised to remove chapters on the history of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers who controlled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda that has moved India away from its secular foundations, has been open about its desire to rewrite the country’s history and break away from what it describes as the “slave mentality” of colonial oppressors. “It is our responsibility to write our history,” said the home affairs minister, Amit Shah, in a 2019 speech.

In recent years, references to the Mughals, whom Hindu nationalists consider to be Muslim oppressors, have been repeatedly removed or amended, while references to the hardline Hindu nationalist ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar as a “most celebrated freedom fighter” and a “great patriot” have been added.

According to scrutiny of the textbooks by the Indian Express newspaper, which revealed the amendments, multiple references to the Gujarat riots have also been purged from textbooks by NCERT.

The riots, which took place in 2002, are a particularly sensitive topic for Modi, who was chief minister of Gujarat at the time and was accused of being complicit in the violence, which involved brutal attacks on Muslim families and the deaths of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. A BBC documentary exploring Modi’s role in the riots was recently banned by the government.

After the recent revisions, references to the riots have now gone from all social science textbooks for those aged between 11 and 18.

Haibatullah Akhundzada #fundie #psycho #sexist theguardian.com

Afghan supreme leader orders full implementation of sharia law

Public executions and amputations some of the punishments for crimes including adultery and theft

Afghanistan’s supreme leader has ordered judges to fully enforce aspects of Islamic law that include public executions, stonings, floggings and the amputation of limbs for thieves, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson said.

Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted on Sunday that the “obligatory” command by Haibatullah Akhundzada came after the secretive leader met with a group of judges.

Akhundzada, who has not been filmed or photographed in public since the Taliban returned to power in August last year, rules by decree from Kandahar, the movement’s birthplace and spiritual heartland.

“Carefully examine the files of thieves, kidnappers and seditionists,” Mujahid quoted Akhundzada as saying. Those files in which all the sharia [Islamic law] conditions of hudud and qisas have been fulfilled, you are obliged to implement. This is the ruling of sharia, and my command, which is obligatory.”

Mujahid was not available on Monday to expand on his tweet.

Hudud refers to offences for which, under Islamic law, certain types of punishment are mandated, while qisas translates as “retaliation in kind” – effectively an eye for an eye.

Hudud crimes include adultery – and falsely accusing someone of it – drinking alcohol, theft, kidnapping and highway robbery, apostasy and rebellion.

Qisas covers murder and deliberate injury, among other things, but also allows for the families of victims to accept compensation in lieu of punishment.

Islamic scholars say crimes leading to hudud punishment require a very high degree of proof, including – in the case of adultery – confession, or being witnessed by four adult male Muslims.

Since last year’s takeover, videos and pictures of Taliban fighters meting out summary floggings to people accused of various offences have appeared frequently on social media.

The hard-won rights of women in particular have evaporated in the past 15 months, and they are increasingly being squeezed out of public life.

In the past week, the Taliban also banned women from entering parks, funfairs, gyms and public baths.

Ted Cruz #fundie theguardian.com

[Article title: ‘Spare us your prayers’: Ted Cruz faces backlash after Texas mall shooting kills eight]

Texas US senator Ted Cruz’s comment that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.
[...]
Criticism of Cruz grew several hours after the shooting when he tweeted: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We pray also for the broader Collin county community that’s in shock from this tragedy.”
[...]
After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May 2022, Cruz commented: “Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer the entire … community during this devastating time and we mourn the lives that were taken by this act of evil. None of us can imagine the anguish the parents in Uvalde are going through. Our hearts go out to them.”
[...]
After authorities said that a Mexican national who had previously been deported shot five neighbors to death last month, Cruz tweeted: “Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people. The victims deserve justice. And this monster when convicted deserves the death penalty.”
[...]

Vladimir Putin #fundie #conspiracy #psycho theguardian.com

[Article title: Putin recycles old grievances on Victory Day as Russian army battered in Ukraine]

[...]
But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

“Today, civilisation is again at a decisive turning point. A real war has been unleashed against us again,” Putin said as he delivered an angry yet somewhat routine speech in which he drew false parallels between today’s fight with Ukraine’s “criminal regime” and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Putin also recycled some of his other go-to grievances, blaming “western globalist elites” for “destroying the family” and “traditional values”.
[...]

Nicolás Maduro #wingnut #moonbat theguardian.com

The foreign minister of[…]Guyana has said that neighbouring Venezuela is “on the wrong side of history”[…]
Tensions between the two countries have reached unprecedented heights ahead of a referendum on Sunday intended to rubber-stamp Venezuela’s claim on the region of Essequibo

Among the five questions President Nicolás Maduro is asking his citizens is whether they should convert the 160,000 sq km area into a new Venezuelan state

It remains unclear what the legal or practical implications of a yes vote would be, and the referendum is widely seen as a way for the deeply unpopular dictator to drum up public support ahead of presidential elections[…]But there are growing concerns that Maduro could push the country into war as he uses the century-old dispute to whip up patriotic fervour[…]
Venezuela has laid claim to the Essequibo ever since it gained independence[…]in 1811. Inhabited by 120,000 of Guyana’s 800,000 people, the region is largely impenetrable jungle but has large reserves of oil, gold and copper[…]
Past Venezuelan leaders have dredged up the dispute in times of domestic turmoil but perhaps none have campaigned as hard on the issue as Nicolás Maduro. The 61-year-old’s TikTok output has become increasingly prolific and his rhetoric more bellicose since 2015, when massive oil deposits were discovered in the contested region

Maduro has presented history lessons on state television, interrupted school classes to get young children to cheer on the country’s territorial claim and handed out revised maps depicting an engorged Venezuela straddling a Guyana a fraction of its internationally recognised size

The socialist government has also released a series of highly polished campaign videos of Venezuelan children playing in the lush forests and cascading waterfalls and an official song, The Essequibo is Ours

“It’s in your hands, compatriots,” Maduro pleads in one video, to the upbeat drumming of the catchy pop tune. “Vote five times yes!”

Asuman Basalirwa, Anita Among and Yoweri Museveni #homophobia #fundie theguardian.com

Asuman Basalirwa, an opposition MP, made the remark as he tabled the draft law [pdf] which seeks to punish gay sex and “the promotion or recognition of such relations”

“In this country, or in this world, we talk about human rights. But it is also true that there are human wrongs. I want to submit … that homosexuality is a human wrong that offends the laws of Uganda and threatens the sanctity of the family, the safety of our children and the continuation of humanity through reproduction,” said Basalirwa, to applause from lawmakers

At a prayer service held in parliament and attended by several religious leaders Anita Among, speaker of the parliament, said “We want to appreciate our promoters of homosexuality for the social economic development they have brought to the country,” in reference to western countries and donors. “But we do not appreciate the fact that they are killing morals. We do not need their money, we need our culture.”

In 2014, Uganda’s constitutional court declared the widely condemned anti-gay bill “null and void” due to a lack of a quorum[…]
“We shall not allow that aspect of saying there was no quorum. We are going to vote by show of hands,” said Among, who in January directed the parliamentary education committee to investigate schools suspected of “encouraging” and “promoting” LGBTQ rights

“You are either for homosexuality or you are against it. We want to see the kind of leaders we have in this country”

In Uganda[…]homosexual sex is already punishable by life imprisonment. The original draft bill called for the death penalty[…]
Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, said new legislation widens the definition of homosexuality to include “holding out” (identifying) as being LGBTQ, meaning that identity and sexual orientation have also been criminalised[…]
President Yoweri Museveni last month said Uganda will not embrace homosexuality

Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps #conspiracy theguardian.com

Two female journalists who were instrumental in reporting the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman whose death in the custody of Iran’s morality police has sparked nationwide protests, have been labelled as CIA foreign agents by the Iranian regime

Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who were arrested shortly after news broke of Amini’s death and who are reportedly being held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison, were accused of being foreign agents in a joint statement released by Iran’s ministry of intelligence and the intelligence organisation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards last night

The statement, which refers to the two women as NH and EM, also described the protests as a pre-planned operation launched by the CIA, Mossad and other western intelligence agencies

The statement, which accused both women of being “primary sources of news for foreign media”, accused Hamedi of posing as a journalist and of compelling the family of Mahsa Amini to release information about their daughter’s death[…]
Mohammadi has been accused by the IRGC and the intelligence ministry of receiving training as a foreign agent abroad for her reporting from Amini’s funeral in her home town of Saqqez

Mohammadi was arrested on 22 September and her lawyer said security forces broke down her door and took away personal items such as her phone and laptop

The statement, which was sent to Iranian news agencies on Friday evening, has been received with shock and fear by other Iranian journalists. The crime of spying for foreign governments carries the death penalty in Iran

The Taliban #conspiracy #fundie #sexist #wingnut theguardian.com

Taliban bans contraception calling use a ‘western conspiracy’

Reports that fighters have threatened those issuing birth control medicines come as Afghan midwives and activists warn of impact on women’s health and rights

Taliban fighters have stopped the sale of contraceptives in two of Afghanistan’s main cities, claiming their use by women is a western conspiracy to control the Muslim population.

The Guardian has learned that the Taliban has been going door to door, threatening midwives and ordering pharmacies to clear their shelves of all birth control medicines and devices.

“They came to my store twice with guns and threatened me not to keep contraceptive pills for sale. They are regularly checking every pharmacy in Kabul and we have stopped selling the products,” said one store owner in the city.

A veteran midwife, who did not want to be named, said she had been threatened several times. She said she was told by a Taliban commander: “You are not allowed to go outside and promote the western concept of controlling population and this is unnecessary work.”

Other pharmacists in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif confirmed that they have been ordered not to stock any birth control medicines.

“Items such as birth control pills and Depo-Provera injections are not allowed to be kept in the pharmacy since the start of this month, and we are too afraid to sell the existing stock,” another shop owner in Kabul said.

It is the latest attack on women’s rights by the Taliban who, since coming to power in August 2021, have ended higher education for girls, closed universities to young women, forced women out of their jobs and restricted their ability to leave their homes. Restricting contraceptives will be a significant blow in a country with an already fragile healthcare system.

One in every 14 Afghan women dies of causes related to pregnancy and it is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to give birth.

The Taliban’s Ministry of Public Health in Kabul has not issued any official statement on the issue.

Taliban fighters patrolling in the streets in Kabul told sources that “contraceptive use and family planning is a western agenda”.

Fundamentalist Mob #fundie #psycho theguardian.com

Mob storms Pakistan police station and lynches man accused of blasphemy

Killing is latest in string of mob attacks against people accused of blasphemy in Muslim-majority country

A mob in eastern Pakistan stormed a police station on Saturday, snatched a Muslim man accused of blasphemy from custody and lynched him, in the country’s latest religion-linked killing.

Muhammad Waris, in his mid-30s, was in police custody in Nankana Sahib, in Punjab province, for desecrating pages of the Qur’an.

“The angry mob stormed the police station using a wooden ladder, dragged him out and beat him to death,” Waqas Khalid, a police spokesperson, told the Guardian. “After lynching, they were still not satisfied and tried to burn his body,” he added.

There have been a number of cases in Muslim-majority Pakistan of angry mob killings of people accused of blasphemy, the most high-profile among them the lynching of a Sri Lankan citizen in 2021.

Video of the incident posted on social media showed hundreds of young people surrounding a police station. There was footage of people dragging a man by his legs in the street, stripping him naked and beating him with metal rods and sticks.

The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, condemned the incident and ordered an investigation. “Why didn’t the police stop the violent mob? The rule of law should be ensured,” he said.

International and Pakistani rights groups say blasphemy accusations are mostly used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal vendettas.

Unnamed Daghestani rioters #racist #psycho theguardian.com

A mob in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan has stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel

In the past day, local people have besieged a hotel in search of Jewish guests and stormed the airport after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city. Passengers were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the airport for fear of being attacked

Local health authorities said that 20 people had been injured, including two who were critical. The RIA news agency said nine police officers had received injuries in the incident, two of whom were being treated in hospital. The passengers on the plane were safe, security forces told Reuters

Sixty people were later detained, RIA reported on Monday, adding that 150 of the protesters had been identified[…]
“This is your captain,” one announcement said. “There’s an angry mob outside that doesn’t know where we’ve come from and why [we are here]. It’s possible we’ll also come under attack.”

The riots appear to have been inspired by a number of posts on the social media platform Telegram, where followers were told that a flight from Tel Aviv would be arriving that evening with refugees from Israel

Some of the signs held by the rioters read, “We are against Jewish refugees”. Police stood by as hundreds of protesters surged into the airport’s main terminal, entering restricted areas and demanding that customs officials direct them toward the arriving passengers[…]
Reports of anti-Jewish acts were not confined to Makhachkala. In Nalchik, another city in the neighbouring Kabardino-Balkaria region, a planned Jewish centre was set on fire earlier on Sunday. Earlier on Sunday, protesters also besieged a hotel in the Dagestani city of Khasavyurt, searching rooms for “Jewish refugees”

Taliban officials of the Afghan Ministry of Finance #fundie #sexist theguardian.com

The Taliban have asked women working at Afghanistan’s finance ministry to send a male relative to do their job a year after female public-sector workers were barred from government work and told to stay at home

Women who worked in government positions were sent home from their jobs shortly after the Taliban took power in August 2021, and have been paid heavily reduced salaries to do nothing

But several women told the Guardian they had received similar calls from Taliban officials requesting they recommend male relatives in their place, because the “workload in the office has increased and they need to hire a man instead of us”, according to one woman who did not wish her identity to be revealed

Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, said in May: “Current restrictions on women’s employment have been estimated to result in an immediate economic loss of up to $1bn – or up to 5% of Afghanistan’s GDP[…]
Maryam*, 37, received a call from the HR department of the Afghan ministry of finance, where she had worked for more than 15 years. She said: “I was asked to introduce a male family member to replace me at the ministry, so I could be dismissed from the job”[…]
“Since they came [to power], the Taliban have demoted me, and reduced my salary from 60,000 Afghanis [£575] to AFN12,000. I cannot even afford my son’s school fees. When I questioned this, an official rudely told me to get out of his office and said that my demotion was not negotiable”[…]
Maryam and her colleagues are mobilising to protest against Taliban policy. “We do not accept their order and we will try to get them to change it,” she said